


The Proposal

by flubaphone



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Angst, Cute, Engagement, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluffy, Frustration, Love, Marriage, POV First Person, proposal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-18
Updated: 2015-08-18
Packaged: 2018-04-15 08:50:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4600533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flubaphone/pseuds/flubaphone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kaidan's been acting quite strange lately, and Commander Elizabeth Shepard doesn't know what his deal is. An unsuspecting morning turns both their worlds upside-down.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Proposal

**Author's Note:**

> This is quite literally my favorite Mass Effect piece I've ever written, and, I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

The bright morning sun trickled in through the window, pushing the veil of slumber from my eyes. Slowly, my eyelids opened and my hands furiously rubbed the remaining drowsiness from my skull. The sun had just barely risen over the lake in Vancouver, and the early spring sky was filled with a dazzling lightshow of color. Crimson and pink, fuchsia and gold painted the sky, and gulls dotted the vast canvas. The air was crisp and fresh, filled with the morning dew and salty lake water.   
The smell of fresh coffee wafted to my nose, and I was alerted to the absence of my cohabiter, Kaidan. The bed was indented from where he usually lay at night, but, his place was cold and stiff, as though he’d been missing for quite some time. I glanced at the clock on my nightstand, which read _6:12 AM_. Kaidan had awoken very early, then.   
I shifted my position off the bed, placing my feet against the chilled, solid wood flooring of our room. The wood was stained a light, natural color, which perfectly accented the blue and gold bedding and the vast openness of the sliding glass door to my right. I stood, my nightshirt falling down over my waist, and yawned loudly at the mere fact that I was awake. It was far earlier than I had woken in the past couple of months, but, I was awake now, and, once I was awake, it was usually impossible for sleep to find me until night had fallen.   
I made my way to the bathroom, and took care of my normal morning routine; brushing my teeth, using the restroom, et cetera. After the main aspects of my morning ritual were complete, still half-asleep, I exited the lavish, porcelain restroom and made my way to the bedroom door, which lay slightly ajar, likely from Kaidan’s early-morning escapade. The stairs creaked quietly under my feet as I descended into the living room, still rubbing exhaustion from my eyes.   
“Elizabeth?” Kaidan’s voice echoed from the kitchen to the left of my current position behind the couch in the living room. My face broke into an involuntary, sleepy smile at the sound of his voice, and I turned my body towards the kitchen, commanding my feet to carry me to the sound of my lover’s voice.   
“Good morning, Kaidan.” I said quietly as I entered the kitchen, my sleepy eyes finding the hazel, apparently wide-awake eyes of Kaidan Alenko. His face, too, broke into a smile at the sight of me, and he placed the mug of coffee in his left hand on the counter and made his way to me, his arms outstretched for an embrace. I practically fell into him, my sleepy form desiring only to embrace sleep once more. Kaidan laughed as I weakly wrapped my arms around him. He kissed the top of my head lightly, then embraced me tightly once more.  
“I take it you didn’t sleep well?” He asked quietly, his voice filled with amusement.  
“I slept fine,” I began, interrupting myself with a quiet yawn. “I just wasn’t expecting to wake up so early.”  
“What woke you?” He questioned, moving my body so he could look me directly in the face. His eyes were filled with concern.   
“Nothing in particular, I don’t think. I just woke up.”  
“All right.” Kaidan’s eyes, though warm and welcoming, were also filled with a sort of worry. His lips were curled in the familiar anxious expression that I knew all too well.   
“Are you all right? You look…troubled.”  
“I’m…fine.” Kaidan replied after a moment. Concern still welled in his eyes, and I feared something to be wrong. However, before I could ask further, he changed the subject. “You want coffee? It might help to wake you up.” Typical Kaidan, ignoring the situation.   
“Sure, hon. Sounds good,” I replied, yawning yet again. I rubbed my eyes and shook myself, attempting to remove the invasion of sleepiness running rampant through my body. I placed myself at the table in the far side of the kitchen as Kaidan prepared a mug of coffee. He knew my preferences by heart, after living with me for six years, and the steaming mug found itself in front of me in less than a minute.   
Kaidan sat down across from me as he placed the mug on the table. My hands, previously supporting my exhausted, heavy face reached out for the glass, and were met by his in the middle. I smiled, looking down at the grey, opaque material, as I let Kaidan take my left hand in his hands, while I grasped the steaming mug in my right. I brought the heated liquid to my lips and gulped it down, hoping for a quick, lasting assault on the exhaustion plaguing my system.   
Kaidan’s firm grasp still held tight on my hand. I looked up from the glass at his face, which stared blankly down at our joined hands. I placed the mug back down on the table with a gentle, hollow thud, and lightly placed my now free hand on top of his. His stare broke from our already joined hands, and he smiled weakly, placing his free hand on the pile.  
“Are you all right?” I asked, concerned. “You seem…distracted. Stressed. Is something going on?”  
“Nothing, really. Just…thinking. I’m all right.” Kaidan responded emptily. His hands were less warm now, and had taken on a clammier, sweaty feel.   
“Are you sure? Your body language says otherwise.” I stated flatly. Kaidan nodded faintly, and his eyes met the floor, clearly avoiding mine. “I don’t believe you.”  
Kaidan sat silent for a moment, simply holding my hands in his while I attempted to study him, looking for any way to discern exactly what the problem was. However, the direct avoidance of eye contact made any sort of inference of his inner turmoil almost impossible.   
“I need to talk to you, Elizabeth.” He stated after an impossibly long silence. His voice quavered lightly.   
“You’re not breaking up with me, are you?” I laughed gently. I knew almost certainly this wasn’t the case, I merely hoped to make him laugh. Instead, he turned paler than before, and my heart rate quadrupled. “That’s not what’s going on, right?”  
“No, no,” Kaidan spoke defensively, releasing my hands and placing them in front of himself in a “stop” sort of motion. “That’s not it at all. If anything, it’s quite the opposite…”   
“Don’t leave me hanging, Alenko. What’s on your mind? You’re scaring me.”   
“Nothing, my love, nothing. Don’t fear. It’s nothing…bad. I’m just…curious about something.”  
“Well, you’re not going to sate your curiosity dancing around your inquiries, Major.” I said, half joking, half serious. My commanding voice was coming out now, and the fear in Kaidan’s eyes grew once more.   
“I know, I know. Just…give me a second. I’m trying to get all of my thoughts together.”  
My heart thudded noisily in my chest. My mind absolutely raced, filling past the breaking point with chaos and disorder. I feared the worst, though Kaidan had assured me this was not the case. Anxiety coursed through my veins as Kaidan sighed noisily, then reached his hands across the table for mine. I placed my now equally clammy hands in his, and he sighed once more.   
“I love you, Elizabeth. More than anything on this Earth, more than anything in the entire universe.” He began.   
“I love you too, Kaidan. You’re scaring me even more, though. Are you sure you’re not about to give me the breakup speech?”  
“No, that’s not it.” He reassured me, though his hands shook fiercely in mine.  
“All right. I’ll let you continue, then.”  
“Thanks.” He breathed heavily, releasing a large quantity of air from his lungs. He inhaled sharply, then opened his mouth as if to speak. He shut it quickly, however, his cheeks flushing bright pink in embarrassment, and his eyes narrowing. “I’m sorry.”  
“Kaidan,” I started, removing my hands from his and reaching across the table towards him. I took his face in my hands and moved it eye level to me, forcing him to stare me directly in the eyes. “It’s okay. Just please, for the love of God, tell me what’s going on. I’m terrified. This conversation, or, rather, lack-of, has woken me more than the coffee has. What’s going on?”  
“All right, Elizabeth. Fair’s fair.” Kaidan began shakily. He stood then, and moved his chair from across the table to directly next to mine. He placed himself back in the chair, and I adjusted myself so I faced him more directly, our knees meeting in the middle. He patted my thigh reassuringly, then grabbed my hands in his once more.   
“There’s nothing _bothering_ me, per se,” He started, staring out the window behind me. The sun barely illuminated the earth outside, and what little light made it to the ground was absorbed readily by the soil, leaving his eyes darker and less readable than if illuminated. “I just…I have a question. And, I’ve wanted to ask it for a long time now, I just…never could find the right time.”  
“Kaidan, you know that we don’t have to keep secrets from each other. If there’s something you wanted to know, you could have just asked me. But, anyway, you know almost everything about me. There’s nothing I’ve willingly hidden from you, and, you know that I would have entertained any and all questions you had about me.” I replied incredulously, feeling hurt at Kaidan’s lack of trust in me.  
“No, it’s not that kind of question, Shepard…ah, Elizabeth. It has nothing to do with your past life. Not directly, anyway. It involves us, here, right now.” He backtracked quickly, hoping to find a foothold in his words. “It’s nothing bad.”  
“I suppose I’ll quit interrupting you. But only if you promise to get to your point, Kaidan.” I chuckled lightly, slightly impatient with his dancing around the truth.   
“Okay,” He whispered. He inhaled sharply, then spoke once more. “I love you. Every single situation you and I have faced, every instance where I felt betrayed or spoke badly of you and your motives has proved that to me. Though I may have questioned some of the choices you have made in the past, in the end, I saw the true value in your decision, and I have come to term with the decisions you’ve made. And, that has made me realize…even though we disagree on certain aspects of situations, our cohesiveness far outweighs that, and we simply mesh together perfectly. It’s…it’s as though the universe intended for us to be together.” I smiled at his final sentence, which he followed up quickly. “That sounded so cheesy.”  
“Well, Kaidan, I agree with everything you’ve just said, but, why the fear in stating that? Why did you avoid telling me that for so long? And why did you feel it needed to be said in the first place? We’ve been living together for six years, and we’ve essentially forgotten all of our past endeavors of disagreement, namely my involvement with Cerberus. Are you afraid of long-standing hard feelings or something? You know that I never loathed you for fearing my alliance with them; I hated every second of it as well. My loyalties have always lain with the Alliance, and defecting went against every moral code in my system, but, it was necessary.”  
“No, Elizabeth, that’s not it. Let me finish. I’m saying, I’ve come to realize that we work better together, as a pair, we’re stronger. I’m saying I think we’re meant to be together. I have no plans of ever leaving you, of ever breaking this bond that we share. I’ve met a lot of women in my lifetime, Shepard, and none of them affect me the way you do. Never have I loved so deeply and naturally as with you. I know it’s not fair that it’s taken me this long to realize this, but, I can’t live without you. I couldn’t imagine a universe where you didn’t exist, where our stories hadn’t crossed paths.” He broke then, for a moment, catching his breath and searching for the right words. “That being said, what I’m about to ask you is the only thing I can think of to truly and accurately represent how I’m feeling. I think, more than anything, it’s going to solidify what we already have.”  
“Kaidan, what are you-” I started, but was interrupted by Kaidan pushing the chair out from underneath him and kneeling down in front of me, a small red box in hand.  
“Elizabeth Lynn Shepard…will you marry me?”  
My jaw quite literally fell open at the question. The ring was absolutely beautiful: petite and slender, with a small, circular, diamond stud in the center, and a beautiful silver band extending from its sides. My mind raced. Sure, Kaidan and I had discussed marriage, but, it was never something we’d seriously considered. We both agreed, or so I thought, that marriage was simply a waste of time, a formality that so many humans felt necessary to procure a successful relationship. Still…the prospect of marrying Kaidan was quite tempting. As a child, I had never imagined myself actually getting married, I’d always just assumed I would serve the Alliance as a marine until I was killed or too old to work the field. Marriage and relationships simply seemed like a blister on the already torn feet of a soldier: it was a hindrance I never felt would be necessary in my lifetime. But marrying Kaidan Alenko…that was immensely tempting. Neither of us were active duty soldiers anymore, and we intended to spend the rest of our lives comfortably in his family home in Vancouver. Marriage at this point, seemed, to me, like a way to formalize our relationship, to dedicate ourselves wholly to each other.   
My entire thought process only took about ten seconds, but, the fear in Kaidan’s eyes grew immensely in that time frame.   
“I’m sorry, Elizabeth,” He stuttered, fumbling with the box, attempting to hide it from my view. “I didn’t mean to freak you out, I’m so so-”.  
“Hush it, Alenko.” I laughed, reaching for his frantic hands. I leaned forward and kissed his forehead lightly, just barely brushing my lips across his skin.   
“I’m sorry, Elizabeth. I shouldn’t have asked. I didn’t mean to freak you out. I understand if you want to keep things strictly ‘boyfriend/girlfriend’, or, whatever it is that we’ve formally classified our relationship as. I just…thought I’d throw it out there.” Kaidan whispered sullenly. His eyes were quite downcast, and his nervous, jittery expression had faded into one of disappointment and regret.   
“Kaidan,” I began firmly, gazing intently into his face. “You never even let me give you an answer, and you’re doubting yourself. Please, calm down.”  
“I’m sorry, I just…I…”  
“Kaidan. I’ll marry you.”  
“…What?”  
“Yes,” I repeated. “I’ll marry you.” Kaidan’s eyes flickered, and a mixed expression of confusion and joy spread through his face.   
“Wait. Really?” He asked excitedly, with newfound happiness radiating in his voice.   
“Yes, Kaidan, gosh, I’ll marry you. Don’t make me repeat it a fourth time, third time is usually the charm.” I smiled warmly. Kaidan grinned from ear-to-ear, then, in a swift movement, removed the silver, shiny ring from the box and placed it delicately on my finger. We both stood then, and embraced each other fiercely. His arms wrapped so tightly around me, as if he felt if he didn’t hold on tight enough, my agreement to marry him would somehow be rescinded.   
“It doesn’t have to be a big wedding, Elizabeth. I just want some of our closest friends there…Garrus, Liara, Tali, Jacob, Miranda, Joker, EDI…all of them. Of course, if that’s okay with you.”  
“Of course, Kaidan. They’re really the only people in the world I would want to be there celebrating with us.”  
“Just promise me one thing, Elizabeth.” Kaidan said after a moment, breaking our embrace.  
“What’s that?”  
“Promise me nothing will try and shoot at us during the ceremony. I would hate to have to fight Reapers or something at our wedding.” Kaidan joked accusingly. I laughed aloud.   
“I don’t know if that’s a promise I can keep, Alenko. Something or someone is always trying to kill me, remember? But, I’ll try my best.”  
“That’s good enough for me, Shepard.”


End file.
